Synopsis
The Cairn Stones
Published by Dramatic Publishing
2 Male 5 Female
"In her strong but always lyrically written memory play [McGravie] ... hints at the way the seeds of one's character and passions are planted in youth and tend to grow stronger in one's later years
Based loosely on events in her own life ... [McGravie] has created a play in which the youthful and aging incarnations of three characters continually shadow each other
The teenage Brighid is a rebellious, relatively well-to-do girl, passionately attached to her wild island culture
Her neighbor, Shelagh, is poorer and restless in another way-hell-bent on leaving for America
Shelagh loves Brighid's half-brother, Michael, but he cannot find it in himself to leave the island. So when she decides to make the trans -Atlantic journey she enlists his best friend, Joe, who Brighid happens to love" ~ Chicago Sun-Times
Fifty years later and now a widow, Shelagh returns. She has never forgotten (or forgiven?) Michael
McGravie infuses her play with a sense of deja vu - a knowledge of how the past is viewed when it begins to retreat fast, moving further and further from reach
"McGravie's offering can hold its own with the plays of Graham Reid, Brian Friel and Billy Roche" ~ Lawrence Bommer, The Chicago Reader